IT'S A STRUGGLE 10-THOUSAND NEW CHILDREN ARE FACED WITH EVERY YEAR -- CANCER. LEUKEMIA IS THE MOST COMMON CANCER IN KIDS. ABOUT ONE IN ONE-THOUSAND CHILDREN WILL BE DIAGNOSED WITH LEUKEMIA BY AGE 19. YET, TODAY MORE CHILDREN THAN EVER BEFORE ARE WINNING THE BATTLE AGAINST THE DISEASE. BUT ONCE CANCER IS IN REMISSION, THE FIGHT ISN'T ALWAYS OVER. TONIGHT'S HEALTHCAST EXPLAINS WHAT A PEDIATRIC CANCER DIAGNOSIS MEANS TODAY. THREE YEARS AGO, THE VENTO FAMILY'S WORLD WAS TURNED UPSIDE DOWN. "We went to the doctor, and she told us it was nothing. It would go away. It was just like a cold or something, but it didn't." THEIR DAUGHTER GIANA WAS BATTLING ACUTE LYMPHOCYTIC (lim-foe-SIT-ick) LEUKEMIA OR A-L-L. "Cancer made me feel sick. My stomach was hurting." DOCTORS REMOVED A TUMOR THE SIZE OF AN EGG FROM HER NECK. "Right here. Right here. It was by her ear." TODAY, GIANA IS IN REMISSION. THANKS TO TREATMENT ADVANCES, SURVIVAL RATES FOR LEUKEMIA ARE HIGHER THAN EVER. "In the early 60s, it would have been a 10 or 20 percent cure rate, and now, it's 80 to 85 percent so tremendous cure rates, and we get about one percent better each year." IN THE SEVENTIES AND EIGHTIES, MOST KIDS WITH A-L-L RECEIVED RADIATION TO THEIR HEADS. "Those kids lost about 10 IQ points. They had more learning disabilities." TODAY, DOCTORS TRY TO AVOID RADIATION, GIVING CHEMOTHERAPY IN THE SPINAL FLUID INSTEAD. BUT AFTER TREATMENT, THE BATTLE ISN'T ALWAYS OVER. LEUKEMIA SURVIVORS ARE ALMOST FOUR-TIMES MORE LIKELY TO HAVE A LIFE-THREATENING MEDICAL CONDITION AND ALMOST THREE-TIMES MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER CHRONIC CONDITIONS COMPARED TO THEIR SIBLINGS. SURVIVORS ALSO NEED TO WATCH OUT FOR RECURRENCE. "Different leukemias are different, but they tend to be relatively rapidly growing tumors, so if it hasn't come back in the first two years, it's probably not going to come back." GIANA SEES HER DOCTOR EVERY MONTH FOR CHECKUPS. "In the beginning, she was petrified of everything, and now, she's not." A BRAVE LITTLE GIRL WHO WON'T SLOW DOWN FOR ANYTHING. ANOTHER CONCERN ABOUT TREATMENT SIDE EFFECTS IS A CHILD'S FERTILITY. ADOLESCENT BOYS CAN HAVE THEIR SPERM STORED FOR FUTURE USE. GIRLS CAN HAVE THEIR EGGS HARVESTED AND FROZEN, BUT THEY HAVE TO UNDERGO SURGERY, WHICH MAY DELAY THEIR CANCER TREATMENT.